Can Medical Marijuana help treat Multiple Sclerosis?

Medical cannabis treatments have proved highly effective at managing many of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we take a look at which symptoms, in particular, are positively affected by the use of cannabis or cannabis-based therapies.

Cannabis is well-known to reduce inflammation and has been used as an anti-inflammatory for thousands of years by physicians and herbalists the world over. Cannabis has proven ability to manage pain associated with MS. In a clinical trial conducted on humans in 2005, cannabis-based medicine delivered in the form of a sublingual spray was demonstrated to be significantly more effective than placebo at reducing pain and sleep disturbances in MS sufferers. Smoked cannabis has also been shown to be effective at reducing MS-related pain in several studies, including a patient survey of 112 MS sufferers from the US and UK in which the overwhelming majority reported a decrease in pain on smoking cannabis.